Kate Nelligan

Nelligan was born on March 16, 1951 in London, Ontario, Canada, where she was raised by a factory father and a schoolteacher mother. Nelligan's childhood home life was a difficult one, with her mother struggling with alcoholism and crippling mental illness. Meanwhile, when she was a toddler, Nelligan was unable to walk due to illness. Figuring out her path as a youth also proved difficult, but at York University in Ontario she was steered towards acting by an insistent professor and decided to study drama in England. She tried to land a grant from the Canadian government to attend the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London, but was denied federal assistance. Strapped for ...